Schooling and educational activities are the dominant
activity for any school age child. For an internationally adopted
child it is an added stressor and an occupation that may lead
to miscommunications with the peers, the feeling of being an outsider
and misfit. It may simply be too much to handle. Thus, the right
school placement that would address the educational and social
needs of a child without exacerbating the issues stemming from
a late start under very unfavorable circumstances is crucial.
Inappropriate school placement may become the key factor in derailing
the entire life of the adoptive family. In most cases, an initial
assessment for the school placement and services is sufficient,
but there are cases when public education is no longer an option,
and parents have to look for a private specialized day school
or residential placement for their child.
Working with adoptive families and children of different
ages, we can recommend several institutions which can address
certain needs of international adoptees better than others and
where a lot of former BGCenter patients find necessary support
and remediation.
These schools differ by their fees and services,
the age of children they can accept, the type of child's disability
they can address, the ratio of students and teachers, remedial
methodology and many other details. All of them have experience
with internationally adopted kids with a difficult background.
As Dr. Gindis pointed out in our Newsletter #124
(Residential Placement of a Child), parents and professionals
often ask:
What makes a residential placement work? And is their experience
transferable to the family setting?
Several things have come to his mind:
Each of these institutions
is a community in and of itself, providing consistent care,
messages and rules for the kids.
The residential life is structured and based on the clear
and necessary regulations and unavoidable "natural consequences"
(expected rewards and punishments). The staff is direct and
straightforward about behaviors - good and bad.
There is a lot of physical,
outdoor activity that is healthy, mentally and physically,
for the kids. In some cases kids work with the animals.
Chores are expected
and when finished, help build self-esteem with the children.
Simple way of life,
minimal choices and temptations, peer group influence projected
by those who had already conformed to the rules of the institution
- all these factors are powerful therapeutic means, not available
in most families.
A residential institution
is a new and temporary setting for a child, with its own unique
group dynamic, and every child who arrives there gets a fresh
start.
The staff does not require
love, just respect and following the rules. This is a great
difference, and emotionally traumatized children, being afraid
of intimacy and unable to express their emotions in the way
expected by their adoptive parents, may feel much safer emotionally
there.
A family may probably replicate a specific
rule, method, parental technique, but not the entire unique environment,
thus its effectiveness may not be transferable. This is why we
have an explosion of residential treatment centers for children.
We intend to continue the list and we begin with
just a few of them below:
